The fastest five cars ever timed on Goodwood Festival of Speed’s hillclimb

1. McMurtry Spéirling (2022)

Max Chilton, 39.08sec
Like an outlandish sports prototype that has shrunk in the wash and then been squashed in a vice, the diminutive 1000bhp McMurtry was of just the right dimensions for ex-Marussia F1 driver Max Chilton, above, to give it his full commitment and strip Romain Dumas of his Festival of Speed shoot-out crown. Goodwood’s record holder is not particularly light at 1000kg, but that’ll be because it’s an electric fan car. How Chilton hoovered this bullet up the drive left spectators gasping above its whoosh. It’ll take something special to beat it. Then again, we said that about the VW ID.R in 2019.

2. Volkswagen ID.R (2019)

Romain Dumas, 39.90sec
In 2018 Romain Dumas had cracked the electric record in the ID.R then came back to complete the job, above. Poor weather ruined Sunday’s shoot-out, but by then the VW had smashed Nick Heidfeld’s long-standing mark during Saturday qualifying, having dipped below it with 41.18sec on the Friday. Except at first it was unofficial because it hadn’t happened in the shoot-out. A silly rule and fortunately someone at Goodwood agreed. Dumas had become the first to log a sub-40sec time.

3. McLaren MP4/13 (1999)

Nick Heidfeld, 41.60sec
He was on his way to becoming a Formula 3000 champion when McLaren junior Nick Heidfeld was despatched to sling an MP4/13 up the hill, above. It quivered and bucked its way along the drive in sensational fashion. The record stood for 20 years – although there has been a faster F1 run. Allan McNish cut the beam in 41.565sec driving a Toyota TF102 in 2002, but quick single-seater runs had been banned. So it doesn’t count. We bet it does for McNish.

4. Gould GR51 (2003)

Graeme Wight Jr, 42.90sec
It’s a touch surprising that more hillclimb specialists don’t feature heavily in Goodwood’s fastest times. Graeme Wight Jr was a reigning double British Hillclimb champion when he made this neat, tidy and remarkably unflustered run in 2003, above. So, Goodwood as a host to a British Hillclimb Championship round? Now there’s a thought – even if it’s one that’s fraught with logistical difficulties to be framed within the four-day Festival of Speed schedule, and of little commercial value…

5. Ford Supervan 4.2 (2024)

Romain Dumas, 43.98sec
Romain Dumas revels in his status as the king of motor sport’s lairy novelty acts. Last year the Frenchman whistled up the 1.16-mile hill course to score his third win in a FoS Sunday shoot-out in the latest (full EV) Supervan, above. The concept has come a long way from its Cosworth V8 origins. It also set a closed-wheel vehicle record around Bathurst’s Mount Panorama track in February 2024 and put in a class-winning performance at Pikes Peak in 2023.